Moshe Feiglin debated former Meretz Chairwoman Zehava Galon today on the cannabis, prostitution and smoking bills. He made the following points:
Laws are not supposed to fashion culture and public consciousness, as former Meretz Chairwoman Zehava Galon said, but rather, to express culture and public consciousness. Israel’s Knesset is the world legislative champion and a Knesset Member is considered successful if he legislates more laws than others. My party’s goal will be to nullify laws, not to keep legislating new laws.
The guiding light is liberty. The three bills we are discussing here are legalization of cannabis, prohibition of prostitution and prohibition of cigarette ads. Legalization did not pass the Knesset, because it would have nullified an existing law prohibiting cannabis. On the other hand, the prostitution and cigarette bills did pass, because they add legislation.
I am in favor of legalization. For some people, it is not just a matter of liberty, but literally of life and death. And I deeply oppose prostitution and wholly dislike cigarettes. But I opposed those bills because they compromise the basic principle of liberty. Everybody knows that smoking is harmful. Let people decide if they want to smoke or not.
In order for real culture to be created, we need true liberty, and not “paternalistic legislation” to “educate” society, as Zehava Galon proposed.
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